Members of the ruling party deliberated until the early hours of the morning to decide their nomination to replace prime minister Jargaltulga Erdenebat, who was ousted earlier this month amid accusations of corruption and incompetence in his administration.

The International Monetary Fund said earlier this month that it would wait for a new prime minister to reaffirm Mongolia’s commitments to reform before it would begin disbursing funds from a $5.5 billion economic bailout package.

Khurelsukh’s appointment is expected to be a formality, with the MPP controlling 65 of the total 76 seats.

If his appointment is confirmed, Khurelsukh will become Mongolia’s 30th prime minister since the former Soviet satellite transitioned to parliamentary democracy in 1990.

Government instability has been the norm in Mongolia, with no prime minister able to complete a four-year term since 2004.

Khurelsukh, who is not a member of parliament, was deputy prime minister until his resignation last August to distance himself from allegations of corruption in the party as well as the failed presidential run by parliamentary speaker and MPP candidate Mieygombo Enkhbold.

Enkhbold’s loss in the presidential vote was seen as a rejection of austerity policies drawn up to secure the IMF bailout, which Mongolia needed to cope with mounting debt pressures and a collapse in the tugrik currency last year.

“Khurelsukh represents the beginning of healthy reform, the rebranding of the ruling party, and distancing itself from corruption,” said Dale Choi, analyst and head of the Ulaanbaatar-based Altan Bumba Financial Group.

In Mongolia’s parliamentary democracy, the prime minister is the head the government, while the president has limited powers including the ability to veto legislation and to propose his own laws to parliament.

Khurelsukh has spent the majority of his career in politics. He holds the title of colonel, although he served in the Mongolia Armed Forces for only a year from 1989 to 1990.

Reporting by Terrence Edwards; Editing by David Stanway and Simon Cameron-Moore

The call came at the end of the first visit to Mongolia by the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT), which took place from 11-20 September 2017.

The SPT stressed the importance of establishing a fully independent national monitoring body, as required under international law, to regularly visit all places of detention and to help guard against the risk of ill-treatment. 

“It is vital that all detainees are treated in accordance with the law and that their rights are fully recognized and are effective in practice. The establishment of such a body will greatly assist in this important and pressing task,” said Sir Malcolm Evans, who headed the delegation.

During its stay in Mongolia, the delegation met with government officials, representatives of United Nations and civil society, and held discussions with the National Human Rights Commission of Mongolia.

The SPT also visited police, penitentiary, health, rehabilitation as well as psychiatric and military detention facilities where they conducted confidential interviews with staff members and detainees.

“We were pleased to see that the conditions in many penal institutions have been improving, both as a result of extensive renovation programmes and legal changes, which have reduced numbers of people in detention as well as the maximum periods of detention. We hope this positive trend continues. The SPT will be making a number of important recommendations on these and other matters, and we will be following future developments closely and with interest,” added Sir Malcolm.

Following the visit, the SPT will submit a confidential report to the Government of Mongolia containing observations and recommendations to further the prevention of torture and ill-treatment of persons deprived of their liberty.

The SPT delegation comprised: Sir Malcolm Evans (Head of Delegation), Satyabhooshun Gupt Domah, Marija Definis-Gojanovic, Kosta Mitrovic, Margarete Osterfeld, and Victor Zaharia.

At the same time, the Chinese government said that producers would also be mandated to reduce overall coking coal production by 30 per cent. The directive comes in a moment when coking coal prices showed a downward trend of more than 5 per cent.

Similarly, prices for low-grade iron ore, another key component for steel, have plunged more than 18 per cent in the past month.

The Tangshan cut will affect 20m metric tonnes of steel or 7.5 per cent of national annual production. Other key steel-producing cities such as Shijiazhuang, Anyang and Handan are expected to announce similar cuts.

These reductions are part of a series of suspensions in China’s Rust Belt that will take effect within the next few months as environmental authorities strive to meet their promise to lower the concentration of particulate matter by 22 per cent this winter.

According to the Financial Times, China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection has also scheduled a round of plant inspections in Beijing, Tianjin and 26 other cities to enforce more stringent emissions guidelines.

The Mongolian People’s Party (MPP) Conference held its meeting on September 25 during which a secret poll was conducted to elect a prime ministerial candidate. The nominees proposed by the party’s Administrative Council to the Conference were Acting Deputy Prime Minister U.Khurelsukh, Parliament members N.Enkhbold and U.Enkhtuvshin.

Acting Deputy Prime Minister U.Khurelsukh won 188 votes or 63.9 percent support, whereas U.Enkhtuvshin got 101 votes or 34.4 percent, and N.Enkhbold--five votes or 1.7 percent support in the poll run among 294 members of the MPP Conference present at the meeting. As such, Khurelsukh Ukhnaa was elected the ruling party’s candidate for prime minister, and the issue will be discussed by Parliament.
Kh.Aminaa

1 - week CBBs
1-week CBB plays an important role in managing the reserves of banks and is the core monetary policy instrument of the Bank of Mongolia. The interest rate on CBB will be the policy rate of the BOM and will serve as a guide interest rate on the interbank market. It was first introduced in July 2007, with fixed rate and unlimited bidding, and traded on a regular basis every Wednesday at the interbank market. This had attracted the banks’ interests providing the possibility for the banks to place their excess reserve in short term asset. Since the introduction of this instrument, there has been a substantial change in the way banks manage their reserves. For the favorable adjustment of CBB rate and loan principle along with the well balance of togrog and foreign exchange, 1 - week CBB auction has been held in the form of competitive interest rate since May 2010. In doing so, the upper and lower limits of the bank bids are to set +/- 2 per cent of the policy rate.

Exploration drilling that is currently still in progress has revealed that at least one shallow drill hole in each of the three targets has returned broad zones of porphyry alteration and mineralisation.

Initial drill results indicate a six kilometre long strike potential for mineralisation.

Dr Andrew Stewart, managing director, commented: “The results of this systematic drill program are proving to be very exciting with three new high-priority targets returning broad zones of porphyry copper and gold mineralisation under shallow cover.

“We plan to test all 19 high-potential copper-gold and gold targets generated during a recently completed bedrock drilling program.”

The three new porphyry targets

The Kharmagtai copper-gold deposits are concentrated along a series of small intrusions coming off the top of the main intrusion on the top of a much larger body at depth.

Shallow drilling in the second half of 2016 generated 19 high-potential copper-gold and gold targets, which are currently being tested by the drilling program underway.

The newly identified porphyry targets are Target 3, Target 4 and Target 6.

Target 3 is a 650x550 metre porphyry target where two shallow drill holes have been drilled with one hole returning 44 metres at 0.19% copper and 0.27g/t gold from 25 metres.

Target 4 is a 800x750 metre circular porphyry target where several broad intercepts have been recorded including three over 80 metres including 91 metres at 0.22% copper and 0.26 g/t gold from 30 metres.

Target 6 is a 1000x400 metre porphyry target where a single drill hole has returned 96 metres at 0.35 g/t gold and 0.10% copper from 95 metres.

Finding the high-grade source

Work is underway at these porphyry targets to vector towards the higher grade core of the system.

Drilling continues and the remaining targets will be tested over the coming months before all targets are assessed to focus the drill rigs on the highest grade and largest systems.

To date, less than half of the system’s footprint and only six of the 19 targets have been tested.

Following on from earlier success

The identification of the porphyry targets follows on from recent high-grade copper-gold intercepts at the Stockwork Hill deposit within the Kharmagtai Project.

Results include:
- 264 metres at 0.56% copper and 1.46 g/t gold (1.49% copper equivalent) from surface;
- 234 metres at 0.57% copper and 1.04 g/t gold (1.23% copper equivalent) from 466 metres, which defined a new zone of high-grade stockwork mineralisation; and
- 212 metres at 0.36% copper and 0.38 g/t gold (0.61% copper equivalent) from 333 metres, which intersected a broad zone of breccia mineralisation.

The draft will be submitted to the Parliament before October 1st. In conjunction with the draft, the BoM proposed to amend some 10 laws including the Laws on Currency Regulation, the Central Bank, the Banking Law, and Law on Combating Money Laundering.

"The BoM's interest rate of monetary policy had been lowered from 14 per cent to 12. Recently, the Monetary Policy Council met again and made a decision to uphold the 12 percent interest. As looking at the basic economic conditions, the monetary policy rate could be reduced. However, instability continues in the market and other fields. For instance, the Government was dismissed recently and it is unclear what policy will be maintained by the new Government. The International Monetary Fund intended to make assessment on Mongolia's economic situation, but it has postponed it for an uncertain period of time in connection to the Government's dismissal. Consequently, some financing to Mongolia has been delayed. Therefore, lowering monetary policy interest rate directly would be risky,” said B.Lhagvasuren, BoM Deputy Governor.

In the monetary policy draft, BoM set a goal to ensure inflation stabilization, maintaining inflation rate at 8 per cent in nearest 3-4 years and lowering it further. Exchange rate will be determined in line with volume of USD in the economy, foreign trade balance and price of main export products. Moreover the BoM will work independently, transparent and open, publicizing its decisions, said B.Bayardavaa, chairman of the Monetary policy Department.

On the secondary market for government bonds, 3,471 bonds with a value of MNT 364,858,570 were traded. 17,916 bonds worth MNT 1,766,516,700 were block-traded and 951 corporate bonds worth MNT 95,090,490 were traded on the secondary market, as well. 

The MSE ALL Index rose 1.35 percent to stand at 1064.48. The MSE market cap stands at MNT 2,075,609,340,330.